CINCINNATI (AP) — Cincinnati Reds outfielder Jesse Winker will miss the remainder of the 2018 MLB season after dislocating his right shoulder.
“He’ll be ready for spring training next year,” Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams told reporters Thursday.
“I don’t think we’ll see him playing this year.”
Winker, 24, injured the shoulder in Monday night’s win over the St. Louis Cardinals. He was placed on the disabled list, retroactive Tuesday, and replaced on the roster by outfielder Mason Williams.
The Reds transferred infielder Alex Blandino to the 60-day disabled list to make room.
Winker was a leading candidate for the National League Rookie of the Year award.
He is batting .299 with seven home runs and 43 runs batted in. He was hitting .362 with six home runs since June 1.
Winker, 24, has been dealing with a bad shoulder for the past two or three years.
He re-injured the shoulder in the ninth inning of the Reds 2-1 come-from-behind win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Winker had to dive while running to second base to avoid being struck by Tucker Barnhart’s line drive.
He stayed in the game and scored the winning run.
“That ended it. That was pretty much the last straw,” Winker said of the injury.
Williams, 26, was batting .280 with six home runs and 30 RBI in 87 games for Louisville.
Williams appeared in 25 games for the New York Yankees from 2015-17 before injuring his labrum diving back into first base.
“He’s played a good centerfield,” said Reds’ manager Jim Riggleman.
“He had productive at-bats, competitive at-bats against both left- and right-handed pitching. He’s a good athlete.”